Epigrams Inspired by the Inscriptions in the Library of Congress - IX (2009)

    41
“They are never alone who are accompanied by noble thoughts.”

Reading makes us many friends, who enter in our souls to dwell,
Who strengthen us when life contends, and make a heaven out of hell.

    42
“It is the mind that makes the man and our vigor is in our immortal soul.”

A word of wisdom feeds the mind and fills the hungry soul;
Yet fools will die with bellies stretched and reaching for another bowl.

    43
“There is no work of genius which has not been the delight of mankind.”

Some people are blessed with an inscrutable power,
Which delves deep, deep beneath the ways of things,
To places where diamonds are wrought from common coal
And crystalline waters gather in secret springs.
Such treasures illume with strange, unearthly lights,
With power to scatter the darkest of our nights.

    44
“The universal cause acts to one end, but acts by various laws.”

Could the Many exist before the One?
Could there be much when nothing was begun?
Could Two be made if One came not to be?
Could the Finite come before Infinity?


    45
“Nature is the art of God.”

Nature is the art of God, who paints the thoughtless earth and sky;
But we are free to choose our hues, for whom and how we wish to die.